The reality is, you need at least 15 starters to compete within the current format.
Walsall (top of div 1) haven"t yet managed 15 starters. The most we got is 13, the least 8. In fact we have one of the smallest player bases in our league, the difference being that we have a lot of regulars rather than fly by nights. Eg Liverpool have 40 players registered with ID"s, Walsall only 22.
As long as one team isn"t swamping the league with players we"re OK e.g when solent got 18 players in the next highest was 11. That"s tough to overcome in the current format, but it hasn"t been happening every week. TBH I"m not sure it can be fixed by messing with the points. It can sort of be fixed by not paying 18 places and I"m still very much against the change to 18 because it more favours the bigger teams than paying 9 does IMO. I can"t see what else can be done in the current format.
As for other things I"d rather scrap the pro league, or play it on the Sunday, so that it doesn"t take seats away from the ME"s which always seem to be over subscribed. However Sunday is a big day online for most of those guys.
I don"t like the Euro adventure events - I"m not gonna pay £500 to enter a £75 tourney that"s just barmy. I"m not convinced they bring many new APAT regulars, they just offer a great structure for locals in far off places. If these are gonna continue I don"t think APAT league points should be given out at them. It rewards those with deeper pockets. If the Euros are to continue then don"t do them all together with Aberdeen in the middle - this just created a dead summer for most of us.
Scrap the live feed unless it can be improved. The most frustrating experience was trying to follow what was going on at DTD. Don"t do it at the detriment of the live update thread, because this is our only permanent record and is much more interactive.
Payout structure - I find it hypocritical to do a standard payout structure in Europe but not here, and then claim that"s what the Euro locals want. I think most people want a standard structure here too. Having said that I"m in the minority that am happy how it is, though the 4th-3rd jump at DTD was a bit too steep IMO.
Satellites for UK events don"t need to be packaged, elsewhere should be.
I was dubious about Betfair but they have been brilliant. All except for their software which sucks as does whoever sets things up online which never seems to be right. Added value though cannot be faulted.